Babbling about books and plants.

March Calendar Picture

One of my own plants this time, which I’m just allowing to come out of its winter dormancy: Oxalis triangularis.

I’m quite proud of this picture – it’s rare that I get such a good one of something so small.

At the teeny-tiny village nursery, we sell Oxalis triangulars as an annual for containers, mostly for the foliage, and they sell well. They sold well at the flea market, too, so I’m dividing them again this year to see if I can’t make some more money with them.

At the apprenticeship place, however, we tried them as houseplants, which didn’t go too well. They got leggy even in the greenhouse (partly because they were usually too close to each other, I guess), and the flowers made a constant mess. We kept going through a cycle of, ‘Those are ugly, and not worth the bother – throw out half of them!’ and ‘Whoops, we’ve run low on Oxalises – time to divide them!’ Ah, the joys of contradicting orders!

They also spread all over the greenhouses – I don’t know if they self-sowed, or if we lost some tubers in the piles of potting mix every time we divided them, but they kept popping up among the Ficuses and under the tables. I like independent plants like that.

***

In other news, I’m going back to work today, so I mightn’t post much for a while, while I learn to juggle work and my plants and the household and hobbies…